Pussy Riot case is yet another pretext to criticize Russia

August 22, 2012, 21:07 UTC+3The sentence sparked off controversy in Russia and abroad

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MOSCOW, August 22 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich said on Wednesday that the Pussy Riot case was just a pretext for a new wave of hasty biased and politically-motivated assessment of Russia abroad.

“It can be stated that the case of the above-mentioned punk group served only as a pretext or a new wave of hasty, biased and politically engaged assessments,” the Russian diplomat said.

He added that some human rights activists and media outlets were more concerned with an ability to stage a row and brew anti-Russian sentiment rather than with the future of these young women.

On August 17, the court of the Moscow Khamovniki district found the Pussy Riot punk group who held a punk prayer at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on February 21 this year guilty of hooliganism and sentenced each of its three members to two years in a general regime penal colony.

The sentence sparked off controversy in Russia and abroad.

On Wednesday, vandals desecrated a monument to Bulgarian-Russian friendship in the Bulgarian resort town of Varna by putting colorful fabric stockings over the sculptures’ heads. The stockings looked very much like those in which members of the Pussy Riot punk group prayed at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

No inscriptions were left on the monument.

The monument of Bulgarian-Russian friendship was unveiled in 1978. The city authorities stopped taking care of the monument in 1989. The monument is in critical condition and needs repairs.

That was the second such action in Bulgaria. The first took place in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia on August 17 where vandals desecrated the monument to Soviet soldiers by putting stockings over the sculptures’ heads.

Both actions are believed to be organized by the local female supporters of the Pussy Riot punk group who want to demonstrate their disagreement with the court verdict.